By Dickson Mercer
Fairfax, VA
July 4, 2011
For the Washington Running Report

In the Lea Gallardo photo above, Laura O’Hara powers to the win with top 40-44 winner Matteo Mainetti on her shoulder and racing legend Alisa Harvey a few strides behind.

Runners in this region say the best way to prepare mentally for a summer race is to expect the absolute worst. In that event, more than 1,500 runners who participated in Capital Running Company’s inaugural Let Freedom Run 5K only had to deal with conditions that were roughly par for a rolling course: Independence Day morning offered overcast skies, temperatures below 80 degrees, and a humidity level which – around here, anyway – would only qualify for the not-so-bad category.

Wearing the No. 1 race bib, Aaron Church, 35, of South Riding, VA set the early pace from the start in Fairfax Corner Shopping Center in Fairfax, VA. The Potomac River Running racing team member proceeded to race head to head with Jordan McDougal, brother of former NCAA champ Josh McDougal, for most of the opening mile. (Although the race itself was new, the roller coaster ride-like course was familiar to those who had run the annual Goblin Gallop.)

By 2K, McDougal, 24, (left) had established a narrow gap he would more or less hold the rest of the way. He won the race in 15:46, with Church only 11 seconds back. Bennett Stackhouse, 27, of Arlington, VA took 3rd in 16:19.

McDougal graduated from Liberty in 2008 and now works for The Running Store in Gainesville, VA. For Let Freedom Run, the store put together a seven-person team that also included McDougal’s wife, Leah.

“You can never be disappointed with a win,” said McDougal, who only recently resumed full-time training following a break from an ultra-filled spring season. He won the 50-miler at the North Face Endurance Challenge in Bear Mountain, NY in May and was second to Matt Woods of Falls Church, VA at June’s 50-mile North Face Endurance Challenge Mid-Atlantic Regional in Washington, DC.

The women’s race was a close one, too. The winner, Laura O’Hara, 31, of Alexandria, VA was running with a pack of men in the final mile when she heard someone cheer for the well-known – not to mention speedy – Alisa Harvey, 45, of Manassas, VA.

“I tried to get on my horse and hold her off,” O’Hara said.

O’Hara won in 18:23. Harvey, the clear-cut taker of the female masters’ crown, clocked 18:29. Jacqueline Gruendel, 36, of Clifton, VA claimed third in 18:44. In photo left, she leads top 45-49 finisher Matt Anderson to the finish.

The Let Freedom Run 5K was O’Hara’s third 5K of the summer and she admitted afterward that she was hoping to run closer to 18 minutes. Still, all things considered, coming as it did at the end of a long holiday weekend, O’Hara said she was happy to pick up the win. Her husband, Dave O’Hara, 35, (below) was fourth overall in 16:44.

Chuck Moeser, 59, of Sterling, VA took the masters title in 17:42, a time that also put him seventh overall.

Numerous runners celebrated the July 4 race – a sendoff to barbecues, parties and fireworks – with red, white, and blue racing uniforms, American flag bandanas, and all sorts of patriotic headbands.

In fact, for some veteran runners, July 4 is the one day they break out what might very well be the finest in old school-meets-patriotic running shorts their collections have to offer.

Racing two weeks shy of his 80th birthday, Larry Dickerson of Burke, VA (325th, 29:13) broke out red, white, and blue shorts he only wears once a year. A runner of nearly 50 years, Dickerson recalled that he got the shorts “somewhere along the line” while a member of Lockheed Martin’s corporate team.

John Carmichael, 49, of South Riding, VA (76th, 22:21) recalled that he picked up his own pair of red, white, and blue racing shorts sometime in the late 1980s. At Let Freedom Run, Carmichael raced alongside numerous friends as well as family, including his 21-year-old nephew, Dave Carmichael of Grantham, NH.

Dave Carmichael was in town to celebrate his grandmother’s 80th birthday, he said. He ran his first race, a marathon, in January.

“I’m passing on the family torch,” said John Carmichael, who was passed by his nephew with two turns to go. “He’s now the best runner in the family.”

Regarding best-runner-in-the-family status, with Dennis and Kathleen Hogan, both 57, the race is still too close to call. The Annandale, VA couple finished their third 5K together today in about 36 minutes. Since mutually deciding to become more active, the Hogans have been entering 5Ks while training together four or five mornings per week.

Perhaps it was the race’s first-timers division that attracted so many new runners. Among them was Eric Korn, 33, who finished his first 5K in 36:41. “Three months ago I could barely run 60 seconds,” he said.

The Harrisonburg, VA resident ran the race with his father, Bill Korn, 66, of Fairfax. His dad, Korn said, ran marathons in 28 states, his 50-state goal eventually disrupted by hip issues. Korn, who got started with a “Couch to 5K” plan, now dreams of picking up the quest where his father left off.

This was the first race in the Capital Running Race Series, which will culminate with the Veterans Day 10K on November 13 and the Jingle All the Way 10K on December 11. Participants can accumulate points for top 10 overall finishes and for placing in the top ten for three masters age group categories, 40-99 – master, 50-99 – grandmaster, & 60-99 – senior. Runners gain additional premium points by finishing in the top ten of division younger than their own.

Combining all three races the awards will go five deep in the open and three deep in the three age groups.

Sponsors for the Let Freedom Run 5K included Mission Springs, a local water company that produces biodegradable bottles; Uncle Julio’s Mexican restaurant, which awarded all racers a $10 gift certificate for race day; Crunch Fitness; Giant; Fairfax Corner, and California Pizza Kitchen.